Bag Converter

ABSTRACT

Described is an apparatus that includes an outer strap having a first end and a second end that are releasably connected. The apparatus also includes an inner strap permanently connected to the outer strap and configured to be connected to a first bag strap, wherein the outer strap is configured to loop around the first bag strap and a second bag strap causing the first bag strap to form two loops, where the two loops allow a user to wear the bag as a backpack.

FIELD

The exemplary embodiments are related to the field of briefcases,satchels and bags. Specifically, the field of the invention relates to aconvertible, self-adjusting, multimodal strap system for bags and packsand is used to convert a strap on a bag or a briefcase into a backpacklike configuration.

BACKGROUND

Back and shoulder pain caused by carrying a briefcase or a similar typeof bag over the shoulder is a well known and well documented issue. Thedesign of bags and briefcases, especially if they have straps, is notconducive to being carried over long distances or over long periods oftime. Due to the weight of the bag being placed on one side of the body,this could create a strain on the body and contribute to chronic painthat exacerbates over time. Furthermore, simply carrying a bag may beimpractical, such as when riding a bicycle, scooter, skateboard, etc.where carrying the bag with one hand is potentially hazardous.

SUMMARY

In one exemplary embodiment, a bag converter is described that includesan outer strap having a first end and a second end that are releasablyconnected and an inner strap permanently connected to the outer strapand configured to be connected to a first bag strap, wherein the outerstrap is configured to loop around the first bag strap and a second bagstrap causing the first bag strap to form two loops, where the two loopsallow a user to wear the bag as a backpack.

The bag converter utilizes two straps. One strap is the outer strap andthe other is the inner strap. The inner strap may be secured inside theouter strap to allow the bag converter to remain connected to a bag whenthe bag converter is not in use.

The outer strap has connective ends that can loop around the band orhandle of a briefcase or bag and where one connective end of the strapcan connect to the other connective end.

The connective ends of the outer strap are releasably connectable andmay be comprised of any material such as buckles, metal rings withVelcro, buttons and rivets.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a first view of the bag converter according to theexemplary embodiments.

FIG. 2 shows a second view of the bag converter according to theexemplary embodiments.

FIG. 3 shows a third view of the bag converter when in use with a bagaccording to the exemplary embodiments.

FIG. 4 shows a fourth view of the bag converter when in use with a bagaccording to the exemplary embodiments.

FIG. 5 shows a fifth view of the bag converter when in use with a bagaccording to the exemplary embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The exemplary embodiments may be further understood with reference tothe following description and the appended drawings, wherein likeelements are referred to with the same reference numerals.

FIG. 1 shows a first view of the bag converter 1 comprising an outerstrap 10 and an inner strap 20. As shown in this exemplary embodiment,the inner strap 20 is secured to an inner surface 15 of the outer strap10 at location 13. The location 13 may be at any point along the lengthof the outer strap 10. In some exemplary embodiments, the location 13 isthe midpoint of the length of the outer strap 10, about two-thirds alongthe length of the outer strap 10, about four-fifths along the length ofthe outer strap 10, etc. The inner strap 20 may be connected to theouter strap 10 in any known manner such as by rivets, sewing, fabricwelding, etc. The outer strap 10 may be made of any material thatexhibits strength to perform the functions described herein for theouter strap 10. For example, the outer strap 10 may be constructed offolded leather, canvas, nylon, a combination thereof, etc.

The outer strap 10 loops around a ring 14 at each of the ends of theouter strap 10, and these rings 14 can be made of any hard substanceincluding, but not limited to, metal, plastic, etc. Upon looping aroundthe rings 14, the ends of the outer strap 10 are secured to the outerstrap 10 by rivets 11 to create a secure loop to hold the rings 14.Other methods of creating secure loops may also be used such as sewing,gluing, fabric welding, etc. the ends of the outer strap 10 to createthe loops.

The rings 14 at the end of the outer strap 10 connect to connective ends12 that may be, but are not limited to, buckles, connective buttons,etc. The connective ends 12 allow the outer strap 10 to be releasablycoupled, e.g., forming a loop when coupled as shown in FIG. 1 or astraight strap when not coupled. The connective ends 12 may be made ofany material that allows the releasable connection to be made,including, but not limited to, metal, plastic, Velcro, etc.

FIG. 2 shows a second view of the bag converter 1 displaying both theouter strap 10 and the inner strap 20, with a greater emphasis on wherethe location of the inner strap 20 is placed. The inner strap 20 mayform a loop into itself on the inside of the outer strap 10 and may bemade of, for example, leather, canvas, nylon, elastic, a combinationthereof, etc. The inner strap 20 loops around and connects to itselfusing, for example, adhesive ends 13 which can be made of, but are notlimited to, Velcro, connective buttons, buckles, etc. Thus, the adhesiveends 13 may be any material that allows the inner strap to be formedinto a releasable loop. In a further exemplary embodiment, the innerstrap 20 may be permanently looped, e.g., the inner strap 20 may be madeof a single piece of material that is secured to itself via sewing,fabric welding, rivets, etc., to form a permanent loop.

FIG. 3 shows a third view of the bag converter 1 when in use with a bag.In this exemplary embodiment, the outer strap 10 is wrapped around botha handle 33 of a bag 30 and a strap 36 of the bag 36. The inner strap 20wraps around the strap 36 of the bag 30. The outer strap 10 is intendedto encompass both the handle 33 of the bag 30 and the strap 36 of thebag 30. Specifically, the outer strap 10 loops around the handle 33 andthe strap 36 of the bag 30 and connective ends 12 of the outer strap 10are connected to each other to form a loop out of the outer strap 10.The inner strap 20 loops around the strap 36 of the bag 30 and theadhesive ends 13 of the inner strap 20 connect to each other within theinner strap 20 to loon a loop of the inner strap 20. The inner strap 20is used to secure the bag converter 1 to the strap 36 when the outerstrap 10 is not formed into a loop.

FIG. 4 shows a fourth view of the bag converter 1 when in use with abag. In this exemplary embodiment, the outer strap 10 is wrapped aroundboth the handle 33 and the strap 36 of the bag 30. Again, the innerstrap 20 inside the outer strap 10 wraps around the strap 36 of the bag30 to secure the bag converter 1 to the bag 30. As will be described ingreater detail below with respect to FIG. 5, connecting the outer strap10 to the handle 33 and the strap 36 of the bag 30 allows the strap 36of the bag to be converted into two large loops rather than a singleloop

FIG. 5 shows a fifth view of the bag converter 1 when in use with a bag30. When not in use, the bag converter 1 is designed to be attached tothe strap 36 via the inner strap 20. Thus, when not in use, the bagconverter 1 may be attached to the strap 36 and may hang at the side ofthe bag 30 near one of the buckles that attach the strap 36 to the bag.While not apparent from the drawings, the bag converter 1 is small andshould not be noticed when hanging from the bag 30. In another exemplaryembodiment, the user may remove the bag converter 1 from the strap 36when not in use and store the bag converter 1 in the bag when ready tobe used.

When the user wants to use the bag converter 1, the user may move thebag converter 1 from one of the sides of strap 36 to a more centrallocation of the strap 36 by pulling the inner strap 20 to the centrallocation. When in the central location, the user may then secure theouter strap 10 around both the strap 36 and the handle 30 as shown anddescribed with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4. As described above, this willcause the strap 36 to form two loops as shown in FIG. 5. Each of theseloops will be large enough to slide a person's arm through, much like abackpack.

Since the loops formed by the bag converter 1 and the strap 36 are largeenough for a person to put their arms through, the bag 30 may be carriedsimilar to a backpack even though the bag 30 is not designed to be abackpack. The bag converter 1 may be used with any bag that includes ahandle and a strap such as illustrated in the figures to convert the baginto a backpack like bag for carrying. When the user has reached theirdestination, the user may disconnect the outer strap 10 from around thestrap 36 and handle 30 and resume to carry the bag as it was originallydesigned to be carried. As described above, the bag converter 1 maycontinue to be attached to the strap 36 via the inner strap 20 when theouter strap 10 is released or as described above, the inner strap 20 mayalso be released and the bag converter 1 may be stored in the bag 30when not in use.

The bag converter 1 solves the issue of back and shoulder pains causedby carrying a briefcase or a similar type of bag 30 over the shoulder bymoving the mass of the bag 30 from the side, hung by the strap 36, tothe center of a user's back. This allows the person carrying the bag 30to no longer have to suffer back pains due to the awkward placement ofthe bag 30 and its strap 36 on the person's shoulders and back. The bagconverter 1 also allows a user to use the backpack like configurationwhen in transit, e.g., riding a bike, skateboard, on the subway, etc.,but then the bag can be reconverted back to the original configurationwhen the user reaches a destination such as a meeting location where theuser does not want to carry the bag in the backpack configuration.

In another exemplary embodiment, either the outer strap 10 or the innerstrap 20 may have an adjustable length. This adjustable length may beimplemented by any known manner such as by a clip or buckle that allowsthe straps 10 or 20 to be slidable with respect to the other portions ofthe strap to vary the length. This variable length may allow, forexample, the outer strap 10 to more securely connect to the strap 36 andhandle 33 of the bag 30 to form the backpack configuration. It may alsobe useful to adjust the straps 10 or 20 to different sizes or types ofbag straps or handles.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications may be made in the present disclosure, without departingfrom the spirit or the scope of the disclosure. Thus, it is intendedthat the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of thisdisclosure provided they come within the scope of the appended claimsand their equivalent

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: an outer strap having afirst end and a second end that are releasably connected; and an innerstrap permanently connected to the outer strap and configured to beconnected to a first bag strap, wherein the outer strap is configured toloop around the first bag strap and a second bag strap causing the firstbag strap to form two loops, where the two loops allow a user to wearthe bag as a backpack.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the outerstrap includes at least one ring coupled to one of the first end orsecond end and a connective end to releasably connect the first andsecond ends.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the outer strap isconstructed of one of leather, canvas, nylon, or a combination thereof.4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the inner strap is constructed ofone of leather, canvas, nylon, elastic or a combination thereof.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the inner strap includes a first end and asecond end that are releasably connected.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the inner strap is permanently connected to an inner side of theouter strap.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the inner strap ispermanently connected to the inner strap at a location that is betweenone-fifth and four-fifths of a length of the outer strap.
 8. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the inner strap or outerstrap has an adjustable length.